Winter Olympics Day 6 - Team GB’s Women Secure Crucial Win

Eve Muirhead produced a perfectly judged take out to earn a narrow 8-7 victory over Switzerland to keep her team in play-off contention at the Winter Olympics in Korea.

Team GB’s skip said of the crucial stone which saved them from facing an extra end decide:

“I got to the hack and I could see about an inch of that stone. I train for those shots every day and nine times out of ten I’d make them but it is different when the pressure is on and you’re on the big stage.”

The Swiss side who are currently the higher ranked team in the world rankings were level by the break and by the ninth end were ahead for the first time, having tested Muirhead’s rink throughout the game. However team mate Anna Sloan said she was confident that her skip would deliver with her final attempt.

“I’ve always got confidence that Eve is going to take the shot down. She went for it and I just believed she’d make it,” Sloan said.

“That was a tense scoreline but we were pretty relaxed. We’ve got two more big games now and we expect them both to go down to the wire again.

“We’ve been pretty close all week and we’ve not quite got all the wins we needed. We expect these teams to force us to the final end, but we’ve got another level to realise yet.”

Coach Glenn Howard said it had been hard to watch but noted it has been one of the best games his team had played since the tournament began.

“It was a great battle but that was hard on the nerves,” he said.

“You don’t want to go to four losses and if we’d lost that we’d couldn’t have afforded another one.

“That’s the best game the girls have played yet and hopefully we’ll keep getting better because we’ll need to.

“It was a pretty tough last shot she played and she buzzed it down like it was nothing but that’s Eve Muirhead, she makes the clutch shots when it matters.”

Following today’s win the British quartet now move to four wins and three losses and face Japan next then Canada who are ranked number two in the world.

Muirhead added: “Japan are obviously going to be flying high after their win today against Sweden but we will also be feeling good after our win against Switzerland. It is going to be another close game, so I can guarantee it is going to come down to the last shot in the last end maybe is not great for the supporters but as players I feel we are in a really good place and just getting on to a really good game and it is in our own hands to keep on winning.”